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Does U.S. Election Campaigning Need To Be 'Stripped'?

In 1986 Depeche Mode released Black Celebration. A turning point for the band as they left behind the last remnants of electronic pop for an edgier, darker, sound. I loved it. It alienated some but gained so many more new fans with its deeper, more seductive, and contemplative lyrical content. That’s not to say the Mode didn’t have the deep lyrical content before this, Everything Counts from 1983’s Construction Time Again, and Blasphemous Rumours from 1984’s Some Great Reward questioned the excess of a Capitalist world and the existence (or role) of God respectively.

However it is one track from Black Celebration that is currently getting the repeat play treatment on my iPod and that track is Stripped, and I’ll explain why in a moment.

Aside from the fact that the track uses a distorted and slowed down car engine as it’s percussive track, which placed it way beyond its time in terms of sampling innovation, it is in its lyrics that two lines jumped out a me recently. Stripped, for me, acknowledges the growing role of media influence on society and plays with the notion of everyday people hiding behind images they project for the different people in their lives to see; Husband, Wife, Father, Son, Daughter, Lover, Teacher. The song contemplates the idea of people, and society in general, being stripped bare of material possessions and social masks to such an extent that all you are left with is reality and bare honesty, the foundations from which people can simply connect more meaningfully with one another

“Let me hear you make decisions without your televisions”

Listening to that track against the backdrop of a U.S. Presidential election campaign funded (in an age of American austerity) to the tune of $6 billion as Jon Snow of Channel 4 News documents here, certainly starts to make you question whether the people are getting what they want, or wanting what they get, after all, they are used to the format so why mess with it, right?

Well, firstly, the media placement spend is huge on traditional broadcast media like TV, Press, & Radio, and that media is becoming ever more fragmented, so truly reaching your intended audience to deliver the right message at the right time is a rather hit or miss affair, even with the various political ‘leanings’ across the media helping amplify one candidate’s position over another.

Also, given that much of the commentary from the campaign has talked about either the negative tactics employed by one party over the other in their promotional videos, to the cheap shots and passive aggression exhibited to one another in the televised debates it seems, according to some BBC News commentary only this morning, and further detailed in this Gallup poll, that voters are actually ‘tuning out’ to the negativity and are still unclear about what either candidate can do for them.

“Let me hear you speaking just for me”

It’s interesting to reflect just how far consumers / members of the electorate have come since the last election. Accessibility to an ever fragmented media has never been easier through more powerful mobile devices and roaming 4G wireless internet, allowing people to curate and personalise content relevant to their individual needs. They live their lives in real-time and expect real-time responses from the information-rich world in which they openly share personal information, opinions and ideas with one another.

In 2008 President Obama was, rightly, complimented for a campaign that embraced new media channels like Twitter. Since then however the public adoption of social media and mobile technology has grown at such a pace that the general public actually expect some form of engagement via these channels that goes beyond simple broadcast messaging.

Maybe that’s what’s missing here, a strategy for voter engagement that goes beyond ‘the formula’ of rallies, TV appearances, live debates and broadcast messaging, to become something that addresses individual voter needs. Let’s face it, the technology exists today to segment information and deliver relevant messages to a market of one, and to predict behaviour and needs based on patterns established in the past and provide insight and guidance, in real time.

In truth though it could still be a question of trust which is driving voter apathy and disengagement. After all, we live in an age where our political class seem less principled than their forefathers, and where some merely seem willing to trade policy for popularity to achieve ‘office’ at all costs. I like to think though that by better understanding and better engaging the electorate, through the use of all of the tools and technology available to them to reach their audience, then we may not need to be Stripped down to the bone to actually engage with authenticity and build trust. As the parties and the candidates begin breaking down the campaign machines, and prepare for 2016, I want them to do it with that percussive sample from Stripped playing in their heads and wonder how they can embrace the new era of real-time technology in just as innovative a way.

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